PG’s Hicks making miraculous comeback from serious auto accident

CLIMAX — It’s the call no parent wants to receive — your son has been in a horrible car accident.

In late March, Providence Grove pitcher Will Hicks’ mom and dad got that call.

Will had been in a car crash and was airlifted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center where he was listed in serious condition. Ash-Rand Rescue had to cut apart his 2000 Mustang to get him out of the mangled wreckage.

“I don’t remember the school day,” he said. “The only thing I remember now is waking up in the hospital and I looked up and there were lights in my face and I was like, ‘What happened?’ My mom was holding my hand.

“(The doctors) told me I was talking to them in the car when they were pulling me out. They said I was talking to them (in the helicopter), but I don’t remember any of that.”

Hicks was making a left turn from Mack Lineberry Road to go north on N.C. 22 when he pulled into the path of a van.

“Chris Turner pulled out in front of me, he went first,” Hicks said. “I guess I was following him. I was going to get a drink, I guess. I pulled right out in front of her. She was doing 55. I got a ticket for failure to yield. She got out (of the hospital) that night. Nothing really happened to her.

“She hit mostly the frame. They said if I had been hit six or eight inches more back, I would have died.”

Hicks was left with glass in his forehead (it’s still there, a small lump above his left eye), internal bleeding in his head, a torn spleen, a fractured ankle, a concussion and fractured vertebrae.

The second call

His coach was on his way to dinner with his wife when he got the call about his starting pitcher.

“When something like that happens, you don’t know how accurate the information is,” Jerry Kidd said. “I didn’t know how bad it was. At first, the way it was communicated to me, it was pretty serious — talking about airlifting somebody. Really, the first thing I thought of was, ‘I hope he’s OK.’ Baseball didn’t come into my thought process. I just wanted his life.”

The next day, Kidd and Hicks’ teammates were able to see him, realizing that his injuries were bad, but he was going to pull through

“They told me the whole team was in the lobby the first day,” Hicks said. “Pretty much everybody was at the hospital. Six or seven kids from school brought a banner.

“I didn’t get to see them. I was hurting too bad. They came to see me the next day. All I usually heard was, ‘You should have been dead. That bad a wreck, you could have died. You’re too lucky.’ ”

“When I saw him, I immediately thought, ‘He won’t come back this year,” Kidd said. “Once you see it’s not a life-threatening situation, you do think about baseball.

“At that point, he had been our most dependable outfielder. He had struggled swinging the bat, but he was starting to come around a little bit. We miss him not just on the mound, but in other places, too.”

Anxious to return

The doctors told Hicks it would take up to five weeks before he could think of returning to the diamond. He was back in 28 days. “I knew I’d play again,” he said. “Nothing’s going to stop me. They told me either nothing’s wrong with my spine or I’m a quick healer.

“You couldn’t really keep a baseball out of my hand. I was still throwing. I was released last week. The only thing that’s wrong with me now is my ankle and my groin — I pulled my groin in the accident.”

Indeed, it was hard for the pitcher to stay away from the diamond.

“When he got released, we had a game that day and he came in his wheelchair,” said Austin Capps, who is the Patriots’ top starting pitcher. “He was in the dugout with us, cracking up.

“Once we knew he was all right, we worried about pitching because he’s our second pitcher. … We played a lot harder after what he went through. We played for him.”

Being away took a mental toll, too.

“When I wasn’t able to play, the games I should have pitched in, if we lost, I felt like it was kind of my fault because I got into a wreck,” Hicks said. “That’s just what I was thinking.”

Still, the Patriots lost just one Mid-State Conference game — against Eastern Randolph — with Hicks out.

“The schedule fell good for us,” Kidd said. “Capps always pitched on Tuesdays and we always had conference games on Tuesday. Seth Hardin stepped up and pitched some big innings for us. Caleb (Smith) has developed more as a pitcher. I guess that’s the silver lining to what’s happened

“We did miss him that week we had three conference games. We’ve been fortunate with the schedule. Overall, we’ve missed him. We missed his bat.”

Coming back

On April 23, Hicks returned to the field as the Patriots faced MSC foe Riedsville.

“I was excited,” he said. “I know (my team’s) happy to get me back. They were saying, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna win now because Will’s back,’ stuff like that.”

“Everything that got hit to me, I couldn’t really go to. I was a little slower. I felt like I wasn’t doing my best if I couldn’t get to it. I got kind of upset. (Coach) asked me if I could play. They told me to do what’s best for the team and if I couldn’t really do it, to come out. I decided to come out. I was hitting really good, though. The best game I’ve had — 2-for-4, I think.”

But, healing is a slower process than most high school kids have the patience for, especially an athlete.

“I pitched for the first time the other day,” Hicks said. “I did OK, but not as good as I used to — that was because my ankle is still bothering me.”

The Patriots beat Reidsville 10-7 and then finished off the regular season with a doubleheader win over Cummings in which Hicks pitched the second game. They finished the regular season 14-8 overall and No. 1 in the league at 10-2. Tonight, they play the winner of the Bartlett Yancey-Riedsville game at Graham in the semifinals of the conference tournament.

“The day he was released, especially him coming out and swinging the bat so well, he gave everybody a little boost,” Kidd said. “Will is very tough and he’s confident in his abilities. He found out you can’t stay away from the game and be as sharp. Maybe I made a mistake rushing him out there. He’s swung the bat so well since he’s come back. I’m pleasantly surprised with the bat.

“He’s back and that makes us that much stronger. There’s different dimensions Will brings to us. We’re trying to figure out what dimensions he’s bringing to us now. Conditioning-wise he’s about a three-inning guy right now. Each week, he gets better.”

Lesson learned

When he isn’t pitching, Hicks has been stepping in as a designated hitter. The outfield is still a ways off as he can’t get a good leap.

But, while Hicks has been able to come back, his Mustang, which is now in the shape of a ‘C,’ is headed for the scrapyard.

“I got out there and look at it sometimes,” he said. “I think maybe I shouldn’t have been so stupid to pull out in front of somebody. I do drive stupid sometimes.”

The mangled car has been replaced by an H3 — a car deemed safer by parents Teresa and William.

“They got me a bigger car this time because they said they don’t want me to die,” he said. “I wanted another (Mustang), but they wouldn’t let me. They’re scared for me to drive now.

“I haven’t been down to the place where I wrecked but one time since then, by myself, and that was because I needed to. I try to avoid that place.”

Hicks’ accident isn’t the only one the Providence Grove family with which the Providence Grove High School family has had to cope. Between the baseball and softball fields is a memorial for another PG student, Sierra Pegram, who died in a car accident in March 2012.

“It’s almost like something bad has to happen for it to come up,” Capps said of safety on the road. “After what (Will) went through, we made sure — ‘Look both ways. Wear your seatbelt.’ My airbags are turned on now even if they don’t work.”

“When I pull out from an intersection, I look out both ways and I sit there for a minute,” Hicks said. “I’m a little slower. Two weeks ago, I rode with my friend; she has a Mustang kind of like mine. She pulled out from an intersection and I was a little nervous. It was my first time in a Mustang, too. Those things are thin. The door is just two pieces of metal.”

It’s a lesson other students have learned, which may save other parents from getting that call.